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Friday, June 18, 2010

dresser / buffet re-do...

So lately I've been a little obsessed with re-decorating - with an emphasis on painting. Painting furniture, lamps, walls and fabric.

In the midst of this madness, I decided that I needed a buffet in my dining room to hold all of the clutter that normally accumulates on the dining room table and other assorted flat surfaces in the house. In my quest I found this very southwestern-y dresser for $25 on Craigslist. I'm not one of those people who is always finding incredible buys on Craigslist, so this was very exciting for me. I should note that it's owner was on the OTHER side of town, so the drive to and from our new dresser/soon-to-be-buffet was about 1 1/2 hours round trip. DH had other things going on and was fuming.

The dresser was really not my style, but it seem sturdy and full of potential...

{please ignore my disgusting garage - I would blame my husband, but it's not his fault}

I sawed off the zig-zaggy southwestern cut-outs around the bottom, slapped on a coat of paint (or four), added moulding around the bottom to cover the old cut-outs (the moulding was left over from our recent bathroom remodel), and added some brushed nickel pulls (which cost more than the dresser itself!) and here's what I got...

...with so much storage space I can hardly stand it! :)

The lamp was a $1 find at a school rummage sale. "Before," it looked like this - nice lines, but a little worn out:

and with a few coats of brown spray paint it now looks like this...

Not crazy about the shade, but it was handy. And the paint was left over from my recent wheat pillow attempt...which didn't really turn out the way I wanted, but I'll try again.

The botanical prints are actual plates from an old botanical illustration book. I got them on ebay several years ago - they are all originals from the 1860's. They had been hanging in my daughter's room, but I thought they'd look better over the new buffet!

Wow! What a HUGE transformation. It looks beautiful! When I saw the "before", I have to admit I never imagined it would look sooooo different. This wasn't just a "re-do", this was a transformation. Love it!